Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Classic Enemies: Skluuuuuurrrrtch...

It's been longer than I planned since my last post. My apologies. I needed the weekend to recover from last week, and then yesterday was terrible. I'll just leave it at that. On the plus side, while searching my garage for Different Worlds #30, I found a treasure trove of old Judge's Guild stuff I'd forgotten I owned. It's all beat to hell, but it's cool to look through. I also found well over a hundred old Champions character sheets, filled in and "illustrated" by hand. I'm going to take them to work and scan them to PDF as-is, then figure out what to do with them.And tonight's season finale of "The Flash" was amazing. So with that sort of inspiration, let's get back on track.

Leech, created by Steve Peterson, is one of my favorite villains. He's creepy, but tragic, being both a monster and a victim. He works as supernatural muscle or as a solo "slasher." He's purple and slimy and utterly mad.Of course, he wasn't always a hideous babbling sucker-beast. He was once an ordinary New York cabbie named Frank, who picked up the wrong fare. The weirdo in the cape wasn't going to a costume party, he was a powerful, evil sorcerer who transformed Frank into the hideous Leech.Mechanically, Leech is pretty much a perfect ambush predator. He's got light brick STR (40) and sturdy defenses. He's invisible with stationary, can swim underwater indefinitely, and - worst of all - possesses a pair of nasty Drains (STR and BODY). Given that, in my experience, Power Defense is seldom a priority for starting characters, he can put a serious hurt on someone regardless of their PD and ED. Tactically, he's best when he attacks by surprise, grabbing his opponent, then using the STR Drain to keep them from breaking free and then turning to BODY to finish them off. In fact, this combination may prove to be too effective, so GMs may want to use it sparingly unless characters need close brushes with death. I know this one from painful experience. My first PC (Spectrum - Your Radioactive Pal!) was attacked in just such a manner and ended up in a radiation shielded ICU, with half a major park radiated and a serious case of remorse. For his part, Leech was even more horribly mutated, developing stretching and body-shifting powers that allowed him to do nasty things like worm his way into our HQ via the water pipes. Good times.One of the aspects of Leech's backstory I've always enjoyed was his nameless creator. Who is he? We know he's quite powerful, able to control minds as well as transform a person into a monster. He needed Leech as a servant. Suppose he needed an army? Could he make more?

I used this one as the horrible monster in the sewer system the group had to go find and defeat. he gave the group alot of trouble with ambushes till the started using area attacks to sweep clean the rooms. Good solo villain if used right